Die Sanftmütigen
Angel Igov | Andreas Tretner
Jury’s comment
The young author Angel Igov from Sofia adds important themes to the twentieth century’s colossal mosaic of horror: The events surrounding the People’s Courts of 1944-1945 Bulgaria are barely known; the archives were only recently opened. Here, documentary material is woven with literary inventiveness into a dense narrative of the individual and society, of private and collective fates. It is a disturbing yet deeply satisfying novel, confident, courageous, imperative – translated precisely and intelligently into German by Andreas Tretner. It is a book that is already part of world literature.
— Elisabeth Ruge, jury
Author: Angel Igov
Angel Igov is a writer, translator and journalist living in Sofia. His work now comprises three novels, short stories and essays. He has received numerous awards, including Bulgaria’s renowned Elias Canetti Prize. His stories have been translated into French, Polish and German. Igov teaches English literature and translation at the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. Novels and poetry by Paul Auster, Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, Colson Whitehead, T. S. Eliot, J. R. R. Tolkien and others appeared in his translation.
Translator: Andreas Tretner
Andreas Tretner is a translator from Russian, Czech and Bulgarian. After his studies, he was an industrial translator and editor for Slavic literature. He has been translating literature since 1985, including works by Victor Pelevin, Vladimir Sorokin and Jáchym Topol. In 2001 Tretner was honored with the Paul Celan Prize, in 2011 he received the Internationaler Literaturpreis. He lives in Berlin.